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South American megafauna, from giant sloths to camel-like creatures, survived thousands of years longer than we thought, challenging the idea that they were hunted to extinction by humans

Many think dinosaurs first emerged on land well south of the equator that now forms part of Argentina and Zimbabwe, but they may have actually arisen in tougher conditions near the equator

More than 130 years after a fungus-eating orchid species was discovered, the purpose of its mysterious appendage has been revealed

The shock discovery that metallic nodules could be producing oxygen in the deep sea made headlines last year – now the team behind it is launching a new project to confirm and explain the findings

After three long years of hoping, it seemed impossible that the second season of Severance could live up to the scope and ambition of the first. But, mercifully, it has, says Bethan Ackerley

Photographer Luisa Maria Stagno is on a mission to document the most unusual pigeons out there, from a Danish Suabian to a Gimpel

Robert Zemeckis's would-be epic film Here relies on real-time de-ageing technology. But do its ambitions conceal a more mundane project?

Feedback is delighted by a YouTuber's sterling efforts to make Michael Crichton's velociraptors more accurate – but points out that they're still far too big

Smell is often dismissed as a less important sense, but it makes our lives much more vivid, says Jonas Olofsson

Kurt Gray's new book Outraged is a clear and insightful look at our society's deep divides, with valuable tips on building bridges

We often obsess about nighttime routines for good sleep, but mounting evidence shows that what we do during our waking hours is also important – a more holistic view that could ease the modern pressure to create a perfect environment for when our heads hit the pillow

When their quantum properties are precisely controlled, some ultracold atoms can resist the laws of physics that suggest everything tends towards disorder

We all know the tired old advice about how to get the best night's rest, but it can be hard to follow in the real world. A more personalised and holistic approach could help

A double layer of tungsten diselenide behaves as a superconductor at very low temperatures, which could suggest a new route to developing materials that do so at room temperature

New measurements suggest mysterious continent-sized masses in our planet’s lower mantle may be extremely stable features

The hormonal changes of puberty, the menstrual cycle and menopause can all affect our sleep, but there are also subtler ways that hormones and sleep interact

People seem to assume that expensive branded drugs will be less likely to cause them harm than their generic counterparts, which manifests via the "nocebo effect"

When it comes to sending humans back to the moon, knowing how to work with the regolith that coats the ground will be make-or-break. Phil Metzger is studying how to mitigate its dangers and use it as a crucial resource

The world’s largest economy and second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases will withdraw from the global climate pact, disrupting efforts to tackle climate change

The US contributes around a fifth of the budget for the World Health Organization – its withdrawal from the public health body will impede efforts to control the global spread of diseases and could put the US at risk